Having just taken an interest in pushing my CPU a little further to get rid of fps drops, I installed ASUS probe while i was installing a heatsink (Akasa AK824cu Copper Base CPU Cooler - which i understood to be very good as a friend installed one on a 2100xp and has a cpu load temp of about 50C). This is coupled with the right amount of Artic Silver 3 compound. However, ASUS probe picked up that my '12V' was running at a fluctuating voltage of 13.3-13.44 every so often, when I had no clocking going. When clocked to 2000xp it the 12v would be valued at 13.44-13.50 as before, fluctuating as its disgression. I dont think i should be getting 55C with load on a 1800 unclocked with this heatsink, as my friend has a 2100 and only 50C temp. I also bought myself a 'COLD' cathode tube to illuminate my PC while I was on the site. This has subsequently not worked with 1 of my strings-of-power-leads that comes off of my PSU, and the other one, after using my pc for about half hour, caused it to cut out, at which point I looked at it and i could see bubbles in the plastic and hairline cracks at one end. I have a 400w PSU, 1x cdr 1x hdd 1x fdd and 1 9700pro. Surely it should all be able to cope with the cathode tube?? My motherboard temp was around 30C during all this, and doesn't change. Why the hell do I: 1) have such a high cpu temp on a lower clocked cpu 2) have 12v fluctuations and why is it that high 3)have a busted cathode tube at this temp? and please someone lend me a hand as to how the hell am I supposed to fix this mess? :(

1) Possible he used Arctic Silver III thermal grease which helps considerably 2) It may be a problem with the Power Supply giving off too much/less power. I suggest something from Enermax or Antec, and because you are using a Cold Cathode, 9700 pro and a lot more aparantly, pushing more voltage out of the PSU is a no no. Cold Cathodes do suck up lots of power, I remember putting it into my 400w system to have it lockup constantly because i had a lot of peripherals [sp?] 3) Possible defect of the cold cathode, get a replacement or get a refund to buy a different company's cathode lights.

It is a known problem of the 9700 pro with power supplies of various brands. Now this is just one possibility and this card does drain up lots of power which there is nothing you can do about it. Second of all, no matter what heatsink you get your temperature will remain high until you get a case fan. At least one which doesn't really help but two will make a bigger difference i personally perfer 3x80mm fans. 2 exhaust one intake. Cold cathode shouldn't be too much problem if you have sufficient coming out of your PSU. The thing here is not a 400 420 or even 500 watts powers supply are the same. Some 400 may be better than 500. It is the Amp each line provides that makes the difference. For example for 12v line provides 38

I a asured by asuka that my cathode tube consumes just 3W of power so it cant be draining :( chuck: >>"1) Possible he used Arctic Silver III thermal grease which helps considerably">"and because you are using a Cold Cathode, 9700 pro and a lot more aparantly, pushing more voltage out of the PSU is a no no">"Second of all, no matter what heatsink you get your temperature will remain high until you get a case fan." I have a single case fan at the moment, and my pc case is completely stripped off, so there should be no circulation problems what so ever. And as to your comment about Amp really being the thing that matters, would you say then that regardles of my unstable voltage, nothing is affected? Performace wise or destructive wise?

And btw, by PSU is only a few weeks old. made by mercury it is. (and still, has anyone got an idea why my tube metled??)

My only answer is to change the PSU to some better brand such as Enermax. Unstable electric current can cause something to burn and because it is "unstable" you won't know when something will go on fire. And since everything is connected to the PSU anything can burn. Cold cathode tube melted. could be because the thing itself was defective or again the PSU is providing some uneeded extra voltage to it. About the temperature I can tell you straight out if you want to get a good temperature one is not enough. I ran 7 to achieve a full load temp of 35 and now I run 3 the load temp is at about 40. 55 or even 60 degrees is not going to kill your CPU but it is relatively hot. Again extra fan helps. Also new PSU or old PSU when a PSU is bad its bad.

=/ so u really think its PSU then =/ honestly.. i'v had a record amount of things go wrong with my PC, i swear they just dont like me :(